Arizona Summary

photo by ladyjadegd

Arizona is renowned for its spectacular scenery, which encompasses deserts, mountains, valleys, plateaus, and canyons, including the Grand Canyon. Here in the Southwest, Native Americans, Spanish explorers, settlers, outlaws, and twentiethcentury dam-builders have written some of the American West’s most memorable history.

Archeological evidence dates human occupation of what is now Arizona back 20,000 years. Spanish explorers were the first non-indigenous people to see Arizona, whose name is thought to derive from a Pima Native American word, ari-son, meaning \”little spring.\” The expedition led in 1540-42 by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in the vain search for the fabled Seven Golden Cities of Cibola was the first major exploration of Arizona and the Southwest. Spain ruled the vast New Mexico region until 1821, when Mexico took control after winning independence.The war with Mexico in 1846 resulted in the American annexation of the area in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln approved the establishment of the Arizona Territory, hoping its gold mines would bolster the war-depleted federal treasury. After years of sometimes violent frontier conflict that included the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral and the war against the Chiricahua Apache tribe, Arizona was granted statehood on February 14, 1912.

For much of the twentieth century, Arizona’s economy was dominated by its \”five Cs\”: cattle, copper, cotton, citrus, and climate. In the northwest is Hoover Dam, one of the nation’s greatest concrete works, and in the northeast is the Navajo Indian Reservation.The warm, dry climate that the state enjoys almost year-round has helped make it the wintertime home of large numbers of retirees from colder areas.

Visitors should note that Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone, but (with the exception of the Navajo Reservation) the state does not observe daylight saving time.